3 Essential Hand Products to Avoid Cracked, Dry Skin This Winter

One of the worst things about winter is dry skin — especially for hands. That’s why it’s important to maintain a good moisturizing routine to keep your hands soft and healthy. Here are three products (including a set of natural emollient infused gloves!) that contain essential ingredients like Cocoa Seed Butter, Cucumber and Avocado that will soothe your hands all season long. {Product provided for review/feature consideration}

Celebrate National Rose Month with C.O. Bigelow and Soap & Paper Factory

Did you know that the month of June is National Rose Month? C.O. Bigelow and Soap & Paper Factory have the rose-infused beautifying essentials to help you celebrate this popular flower. {Product provided for review/feature consideration}

Prevent Dry Hands with Archipelago Botanicals Soy Milk Hand Creme

The weather may be getting warmer, but if your household is anything like mine, cold and flu season is still running rampant! This means lots of hand washing, which generally leads to dry and chapped hands. Don't let those most important appendages get neglected! The perfect solution to keep your skin moisturized, soft, and strong during the cold season and all year round is ArchipelagoBotanicals Soy Milk Hand Crème - a must-have for protecting and keeping your hands looking and feeling healthy. The rapid working, nourishing hand treatment will hydrate your skin with its soy extract and soy proteins – it’s an Archipelago favorite! {Product provided for review/feature consideration}

L'Occitane La Collection de Grasse

The true story of L’OCCITANE’s La Collection de Grasse continues, uniting two ingredients – one from a small, French Provençal town, and one from another distant land. The result is an unexpected reunion of precious, floral twins: Iris Bleu & Iris Blanc. {Product provided for review/feature consideration}

Holiday Gift Sets Le Couvent des Minimes

Meet the four exclusive holiday collections featuring Le Couvent des Minimes’ most beloved formulas and soothing scents inspired by centuries-old therapeutic recipes. This holiday season, give a gift that supports a good cause with items from Le Couvent des Minimes’ newest collection: 1% of total sales go to the brand’s historic cause, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Association, to support essential health and childhood projects. This year’s holiday line includes: the Hand Cream Trio, Balm Trio, Eau de Cloitre Duo, and Soap Quartet.

Stocking Stuffers for Beauty Lovers!

Have a beauty lover on your holiday list this year? From hand creams to lip glosses, check out these stocking stuffers that are low in price, but high in style! {Products provided for review/feature}

Fab Friday Favorites: Hand Creams! (Fall Into Beauty)

My hands have always been notoriously rough. It's just the way they are. But over time I have discovered that the right cream can make them look good and feel smooth {even if not quite soft}. Plus, regular use of hand cream is sort of important if you plan on taking pictures of pretty polishes on your nails from time to time {which I am wont to do about once a week, usually on Mondays :) }. These are a few of my tried and trues - conveniently separated into drugstore and luxury categories, plus two that I'm dying to get my hands on {particularly because I've tried other products from the brands that are just FANTASTIC}! {Products that were sent for consideration will be noted with {c/o} } 

New Pretties from L'Occitane! (Fall Into Beauty)

From two brand new collections: L'Occitane Vanille & Narcisse Body Milk and Shea Butter Jasmine Hand Cream {products sent for review} 

Y'all already know I'm all about the French beauty goodies! L'Occitane is one of my all time favorite brands-not only do they have an established history of quality, luxury, and effectiveness, they regularly come out with new scents and formulas that make you take another look at the brand. For example, these two new moisturizing beauties...

Quickie Review: Lulah Hand Cream

Lulah Hand Cream in Peony 

I know you hear this from me often, but one of the things I'm also "obsessed" with {and subsequently have a tendency to hoard} is hand cream. I've always been paranoid about the rough texture of the skin on my palms, and now that I take pictures if my nails frequently AND wash dishes multiple times a day, that obsession has just heightened.

A Parisian Luxury for the Hands! AKA: NUXE Rêve De Miel Hand and Nail Cream

I won a prize from a giveaway Nuxe had on their Facebook page (I'll share about it later), and included with my prize was my new favorite hand cream, NUXE Rêve De Miel® Hand and Nail Cream.

My Jurlique Skincare Routine!

I have the pleasure of trying out a lot of skin care products but Jurlique has become one of my favorite brands so far...So much so, that they are sort of my standard. It can be a bit jarring to my skin to change up routines too often, but duty calls, and I find myself swapping out products every 3 to 4 weeks. But now, instead of changing my day time AND night time routine, I just switch my night time products when I need to test something new, and my morning routine (and my skin, for the most part) stays consistent with these products from Jurlique...

Melvita All Stars

Melvita All Stars by mamafashionist1 featuring a face care

I've shared my love for Melvita's Rose Nectar collection and their Extraordinary Waters , but honestly I am so impressed with the quality of the products that I've tried from the French organic beauty pioneer, that several of the products have earned a place in my daily rotation of products for skin care and maintenance, for both myself and my lil bits!

Soap & Glory Peace Hand Love Set

I've heard nothing but rave reviews for Soap & Glory, a line of  bath and body products from the UK. The packaging is adorable (it's pink and features real women from photographs from the 1950's, 60's, and 70's) and the product names are so fun and cheeky (like a range of Sexy Mother Pucker lipglosses and Clean On Me shower gel). I've heard such great things about their Hand Food Hand Cream, I jumped at the chance to try Soap & Glory for myself...

Soap & Glory Peace Hand Love Gift Set 

CO Bigelow Lemon Hand Wash No. 1142

I have 3 children and between cooking, changing, cleaning, and feeding them all, I feel like I am constantly washing my hands! My hands are kind of rough naturally, so all of that time in the water doesn't really help to keep them touchably soft, but I have found a few treasures that help them stay soft and supple (and don't make my hands feel as dry as the Sahara). Here's one of them:

CO Bigelow Lemon Hand Wash No. 1142

My Favorite Bedtime Story

I am a wife and a stay at home mommy to 3 daughters, aged 11, 3, and 1. The concept of “me time” (quality “me time” at least) has been nonexistent for over a year now. There was a little pocket of time when the two little ones would take a nap at the same time, while my husband was at work and my oldest daughter was still at school, but I usually used that time to get necessary housework done. By the end of the day, once everyone was clean, fed, happy, and drifting merrily off to slumberland, I was so drop dead exhausted, most days I counted myself lucky if I could muster up the energy to swipe a cleansing cloth over my face. Thus was the  extent of my skincare regimen.

But today is a new day! Yes, I’m still bone weary by the time the house falls silent and everyone else is asleep. Now I manage to stay awake to enjoy one of the best (and one of my absolute favorite) parts of the day, my “me time,” aka my Nighttime Ritual. I spend at least 30 minutes in my little bathroom, removing my makeup, cleansing my face, moisturizing my skin, and pampering my curly tresses. Sometimes I even play a little music and light a candle. It is one of the highlights of my day. It doesn’t matter how tired I am (or how many times my husband wakes up to ask me what I’m doing in there and why I am taking so long), I relish this time and have no idea what took so long for me to do this for myself. I sleep better, I am happier, and my skin looks PHENOMENAL.

The final part of my routine happens once I get back in the bed. Since my hands just spent the better part of 30 minutes immersed in water (and I wash them like 2 times during the course of the whole routine), the last thing I do before I go to sleep is put on a nice hand cream. Not just any old lotion, cream, oil, or butter-it has to be a legit hand cream (my husband has no idea why this makes a bit of difference, but it does to me). And I’m all out…

I really liked my old tube of hand cream (a marvelous concoction from Bath and Body Works), but as a beauty junkie, I love to try new things. So when I ran across this new (to me at least) brand, I had to take a closer look.

Jurlique is a brand being featured in April’s Birchbox. According to them (and experience has inclined me to take their word for it): “Not only do their skincare products feel (and smell) amazing on your skin, they also have an impressive dedication to planet earth. The eco-conscious company’s packaging is already 95 percent recyclable. And now Jurlique has pledged to reduce its energy and water consumption as well as its amount of waste to landfill by 20 percent by 2015.” Color me intrigued!

So I checked out Jurlique’s products on Birchbox’s website and found this lovely…

Jurlique Lavender Hand Cream

LAVENDER hand cream, people! What a perfect goodnight kiss!  This rich hand cream uses safflower seed oil and macadamia oil to restore moisture and protect from future dryness. Carrot root extract and aloe vera soften and soothe, while vitamin E provides antioxidant protection for the skin. It  would be the perfect addition to top off my night time ritual. 

So, what is your definition of "me time?" How do you treat yourself? Does your bedtime routine rival mine? My inquiring mind wants to know. Let me know in the comments below. Until next time...

Ciao, XxO

Q